Most natural gas consumed in the United States is not produced in the areas where it is most needed. To get gas from increasingly remote production sites to consumers, pipeline companies operate and maintain hundreds of thousands of miles of main transmission lines. This gas is then sold to local distribution companies, who deliver gas to consumers using a network of more than a million miles of local distribution lines. This vast underground transmission and distribution system is capable of moving many billions of cubic feet of gas each day. To provide force to move the gas, and to improve the economics of gas transportation, operators install large compressors at transport stations along each pipeline.
These compressors can be driven by various engines and motors. Compressors driven by natural gas engines have proved to reduce power demand and energy consumption costs, as compared to compressors driven by other means. An advantage of these engines is that they are driven by the same natural gas as is being transported by the compressor.
Conventionally, the control systems for the engine and compressor are isolated from each other. That is, the engine control system does not receive data about what the compressor control system is doing, and vice versa.